Ironies in Hip-Hop

An ‘Irony‘ is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character’s knowledge and that of the audience; it can be said that hip-hop music uses many literary devices as rappers use vivid and colorful language to paint a canvas; the brush used is a combination of blunt dialogue, metaphors, simile’s, syllabic rhyming, and cross textuality references. However, the culture itself – the artists behind the music, and the lifestyle, presents some interesting irony; everything from lines in songs, to certain artists making business decisions, to events that have transpired. Hip-Hop definitely presents some interesting ironies such as:

Tupac dying while being signed to Death Row Records

Notorious B.I.G. making a song on his last album called ‘Going back to Cali’

Lil Wayne being the biggest artist in the game

50 Cent being very rich

Eminem being White (there are no white M&M’s)

OutKast having commercial success

T.I. (really T.I.P.) got arrested and convicted because of a tip to the authorities

Biggie Smalls Influence: Formula & Posse Syndrome

As with the launch of the movie ‘Notorious’, a tale of Notorious B.I.G.’s life and times, let us take time to reflect on not only his great talent, but on the impact that he had on the game.

A rundown of his accomplishments:Ready to DieReleased 1994RIAA citified 4x Platinum

Life After DeathReleased 1997RIAA certified Diamond (10x Platinum)

Born AgainReleased 1999
RIAA certified 2x Platinum

Duets: The Final ChapterReleased 2005RIAA certified Platinum

Greatest HitsReleased 2007
RIAA certified Gold

No wonder Bad Boy is still eating, you got to really take a look at what Life After Death did, because it was dropped as a double disc (so it was priced higher than a single CD), and it sold 10 million worldwide. In terms of the influence, Ready to Die and Life After Death both changed the direction of Hip-Hop by mastering the art of creating a ‘crossover’ hit (mixing hardcore lyrics with an R&B singer on the chorus), and it laid the groundwork of how to maintain ‘keeping it real’. Before an album was released, Biggie was wise to work the mixtape DJ market – that would involve leaking tracks to DJ’s with national distribution, and giving certain DJ’s exclusive freestyles. All of this was for the goal that when the album dropped, those in the underground would be attracted to Biggie’s lyrical ability, and the general market would be taken in by the crossover appeal. This formula has since been copied exponentially by the likes of Jay-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Eminem, and the like.

Bring the Posse Syndrome

Another pervasive influence that Biggie had on the hip-hop genre was the ‘bring the posse syndrome’, that is, once you get successful, create a label, and have your friends release albums and songs under your new label. Biggie only had a chance to try this out with now defunct group Junior M.A.F.I.A., that had a successful album (going Gold) and spawned the careers of Lil’ Cease and the infamous Lil’ Kim. Biggie had an understanding of how the music industry game worked; similar to the Pimp trade or a Pyramid scheme – the higher you are at the top, the more you can make off of others. Well, in the music game, it works that if you can sign them to your label, you can get a piece of their recording and publishing deals. Current circa, every rapper that is somewhat successful has copied this blueprint, from:

As you can see, some of these worked out very well in the cases of Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Eminem, and 50 Cent, and not so well as with the case of Nelly, Snoop, and others.

Trying to figure out a witty way to end this piece, but I will just end it by saying the demise of Biggie and Tupac taught us what REAL beef is, and what can happen – and I don’t think that none of these Internet Gangsters want to see that. Biggie will always be remembered, and his influence lives on in the current generation of hip-hop and beyond.